【推荐1】Here’s a surprising fact: Of the 1.1 million firefighters in the United States, about 780,000 are volunteers. Roughly a third of the population is   ________ by mostly- or all-volunteer fire departments.

Also   ________ , perhaps. Sometimes they have to pay for their own gear.

I   _______ this because I volunteer as a firefighter in Durango, Colorado. I responded to more than 50 calls in 2014, everything from   _________ to car accidents. In that period, I spent close to $1,000 on optional gear not supplied by my   _________ , things like higher-quality flashlights, knives, and better gloves, which make my   ________ easier.

Yesterday, a   ________ was introduced in Congress that would give a significant tax break to those who volunteer their time as   _________ responders. I hope it passes, not because it will put some money in my pocket     9    , hey, that’ll be nice) but because it will ease the financial burden on volunteers and acknowledge their time commitment. I believe it will   ________ more people to help.

And we   _______ that.

In   _________ areas where population density is low and calls for fire and EMS services are relatively rare, it just doesn’t   _________ to have career firefighters on the staff 24/7 (全天候).   ________ , volunteers are used to fill in the   _________. We are ready to put our regular lives aside to help someone on what is the   _________ day   of   their   life.   We   have   likely   never   met   before,   and   might   never   again,   but   it doesn’t   _______ in a crisis. Without volunteers, the whole system would collapse.

There’s a T-shirt that’s popular among us, reading “For Pride, Not   _______.” We volunteer because we know our   _________ need us. We don’t need a small tax break. Without one, we’ll still put on our gear when the alarm goes off without any   ________ . But we’d appreciate one, and if it encourages more people to join us, it’s worth it.

【推荐2】Never had a lovely sunflower been absent to my house on my birthday, since I turned 13. No cards or notes in it. Calls to the flower shop were always ______ — it was a cash purchase.

I never stopped ______ who the mysterious giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about someone wonderful but too shy to disclose his or her ______.

My mother even ______ my imaginations. She’d ask me if there was someone who I had done a special favor and then might be showing ______. As a teenager, ______, I had more fun assuming that it might be a boy I had a crush on.

When I was 17, I failed ______ in a significant test. That night when the result came. I just ______ myself to sleep. When I awoke in the morning, my mother comforted, “Don’t be discouraged! It’s not a big deal!” Yet, I remember ______ out of the house at that time, yelling... “You just don’t understand!”

One month before my graduation from high school, my father died of a heart attack. My feelings ranged from pain to ______ so that I became completely uninterested in the upcoming ceremony. But my mother, in the midst of her own grief, would deny my ______ any of those things. Before my father died, we had shopped a party dress which made me feel like a (an) ______ Cinderella. But it was the wrong size. Later I totally forgot about the dress.

My mother didn’t. The day before the dance, I found that dress, in the right size, ______ in the box to me — gracefully, and lovingly. She just wanted her child to feel loved and showed that there still existed magic and beauty even ______ hardships.

Actually, my mother passed away one week after I got married, That year the adorable sunflower stopped ______.

【推荐3】I recently overheard something that surprised me. I heard that people who win the lottery (彩票) are _______ for about 3 weeks. And then they go back to their _______ state of being before they won the money. I _______ that they would have been happy for a much longer time.

The reason for this is that _______ we try to change how we feel by using something outside of ourselves, like winning the lottery, or getting a new car or house, it never _______. The resulting feelings of happiness are often fleeting (飞逝的). We cannot _______ them for very long. In some way, it may be a good thing. It reminds us that happiness really does come from within and is _______ to us at any moment. True happiness has _______ to do with what is happening outside, it is an inside job. Happiness is a _______.

We can make the decision to be happy for one day, when we ________ in the morning, every morning. We can find something that brings us great ________, like sitting outside in the garden under an old tree and ________ the birds sing, or watching the dog or cat play, and just ________ the moment. It is our ________ state and we need only allow it in. At any moment, we can ________, take a deep breath, and remember who we really are, and why we came here, and that truly is to ________ joy and the aliveness of being.

“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when run after, is always ________ our reach, but, if you will sit down ________, may fall upon you,” said Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist. So, today, no matter what is going on in your own ________, stop and take a few moments to breathe deeply and just ________ to be happy, whatever that means to you.

【推荐1】We first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our marriage. Jim and I worked full-time, and in the _______our garbage cans went out to the curb(路边), _______to wait the long, lonely 10 hours there until we returned to fetch them because we were busy. _______, we’d come home every garbage day to find them neatly_______ in their spot next to our garage. We_______who had done it for us, and then one day we_______ him: an elderly man who lived across the street from us.

I baked cookies and we left them on the bench outside the garage with a thank-you _______. When we got home from work that day, a typed letter had _______the gift. The letter was from Tom and _______how he had come to walk the________on garbage day, returning cans for people he ________knew. Back when he was ________in the army, his young wife Gee had to live by herself. In those ________days, neighbors had taken the time to ________her garbage cans so she didn’t have to. He never________ it, and now he paid it forward by doing it for all of us.

Over the next few years, we would ________Tom in their first-floor extra bedroom, where he spent his last days, still sharp and smiling.

We told Gee how________Tom had been to us, how we grieved(感到悲伤的) for his death and how________ we were to have known him. She wrote us back and told us she still talked to Tom every day. Sharing that ________our bond with her.

Tom and Gee, who opened up their hearts to us, made us realize that home doesn’t________at a property line. It extends to all the people in the neighbourhood.

【推荐2】It took about three weeks for me to become mute. In 2007, I visited a client as a financial adviser and _____ a virus. I had a sore throat. My doctor _____ me it would soon return to normal.

________ , it got worse, I could no longer make phone calls and started carrying a little whiteboard to write everything down； I tried to work with people I already knew, who were likely to be more ________ with me； but explaining financial details to _______ investors with marker pen was a big challenge.

At home? my wife and teenage sons _______ as best they could. Soon I was using a computer that read out phrases typed into it

My situation ______ when I was offered a tuition-assisted place at Iowa State University. I _______ myself by accepting a job in the student services office. Forced to _______ with people face to face, I started to have fun with computer voices.

In 2010, I read a news story about a waitress who'd had her voice _____ with the help of a doctor in Cleveland. It had to be worth a ______. Dr Milstein ______ me to do some vocal exercises to stretch the muscles in my neck and to my astonishment I started to make __________.It was the first time I'd heard my voice in three and a half years.

Then I did more exercises, my voice becoming more ______ ； Milstein asked me to go over to the window and ______ the friends across the street. I was afraid at first, ___I damaged my voice, but he kept _____ me. Friends at university heard my voice for the first time and even when I was alone, I talked to myself.

I don't regret those years of _______. I spent more time with my boys and had time to ______ where I'd gone wrong as a husband and parent. That time _____ my rough edges. I prefer who I am now.

【推荐3】A few weeks ago, while I was going home from work, I saw an old dog _________ on the side of the road. I got _________ to see why he would be there and felt shocked when I saw he was not able to ___________ his hind legs(后腿), which seemed to have been broken. He _______ me with painful looks _________ he was asking me for help. I knew I couldn’t turn my back on him when he needed ___________.

Some people who live nearby told me that he was _________ by a motorcycle and the _________ pushed him there. I went daily to give him food and water, _________ I also got a wooden board to cover him from the bright sun.

I heard on the news about the __________ weather for that weekend and __________ to bring him home with some help from my father. He called some vets to help him with his legs, __________ he was not able to stand on four and dragged the hind legs.

After some __________ and a sheltered home with love and __________, he is now able to walk with a little __________ and he even runs around now. He is so __________ and even though I have three other dogs and two cats, I made some __________ in my home and my heart for him. I feel so happy and __________ when I see his eyes. I love __________ and these six hairy babies are the most special things I __________ have.

【推荐2】Mother’s Day, 2017 was the last time that all my three kids would be kids at home. I was _________ a Mother’s Day to remember.

That morning, I got up early and left for _________ . The boys and I were going _________ , not unusual, so I expected the time I’d have with the three of them surrounding me during break. I entered the office after my class, _______ the crowd for their faces. I didn’t find the boys, but wasn’t too worried _______ their classes often ran late. I found a row with plenty of room for all the four of us, _________ spots for my handsome young men.

The longer I sat there, the more _________ and angry I got. How could they _________ their mother on this of all days? I couldn’t _________ my work, only on how I’d been wronged. ______________ the time the last morning class ended, I could hardly wait to get home and give them a piece of my mind.

Arriving home, I noticed a pile of roses on the ground. I looked closer and saw they were the ______________ of a track made from fresh flowers, which led to our room. As I ______________ the flowers, the door got opened and three ______________ faces greeted me. They let me see what they’d been working on all ______________ .

______________ the entire floor were the words, Happy Mother’s Day, We Love You. They were spelled out with ______________ . The space was ______________ with the sweetness of roses and other flowers. They’d asked for a leave and worked all morning, gathering the fresh flowers and ______________ them into a surprising message.

I immediately realized I’d been hurrying in my ______________ of the situation. While I had been feeling unloved, they had spent their time writing a ______________ to show how much they really cared.